Milwaukee, WI – On November 21, the College of Wisconsin-Milwaukee administration put collectively a panel occasion that includes two audio system who oppose the genocide in Palestine and two Zionists. Professional-Palestine organizations throughout the town put out a name to mobilize folks to the discuss and pack the home with anti-Zionist components. UWM College students for a Democratic Society was one in all them.
The Zionist audio system included Rabbi Josh Herman, the manager director of the Milwaukee department of the far-right Zionist group Hillel, and a political science professor at UWM named Shale Horowitz. They began off with a fictitious recounting of historical past, claiming that the blame for the genocide and occupation rests with the Palestinians and their unwillingness to “compromise.”
The feedback from the 2 Zionists solely received worse from there, together with claiming that the Palestinian liberation chant “From the river to the ocean” is a name for Jewish genocide; {that a} individuals who had been victims of a earlier genocide couldn’t be perpetrators of a brand new genocide; that the Zionist state ought to be counseled for its efforts to “forestall civilian casualties,” and that Muslims are probably the most profitable colonial forces within the historical past of the world – particularly, as said by Horowitz, in comparison with Europeans.
To their credit score, the opposite two panelists – Othman Atta, chief with the Islamic Society of Milwaukee; and Dr. Caroline Seymour-Jorn, professor and director of Worldwide Research at UWM – responded to the genocide apologism with sharp rebuttals, reasoned positions, and factual accounts of the historical past.
The group, largely pro-Palestinian, responded extra frankly, with jeers and laughter on the absurdities being put ahead by the Zionist audio system. Members of College students for a Democratic Society (SDS) took it a step additional and held up red-painted arms at any time when one of many Zionists would communicate, symbolic of the blood on their arms and the arms of the federal government which they defend. The silent protest had begun to put on on them each because the occasion went on, with an increasing number of frequent allusions to their detractors within the crowd. Horowitz particularly appeared to direct his vitriolic feedback on the scholar demonstrators.
Because the panel was coming to a detailed, the moderator pointed to UWM’s chancellor, Mark Mone, and stated that he had the unenviable job of determining the way to navigate the challenges of making a safer and extra welcoming campuses from college students of all backgrounds. He then turned to the panelists to offer recommendation for the chancellor, however earlier than any of them may reply, a member of SDS shouted out, “Change the identify of the library!” The SDSer was referencing the UWM library named after Golda Meir, an notorious former prime minister of the Zionist state. Most in attendance cheered and clapped. There was no response from administration.
SDS shall be initiating a marketing campaign within the coming weeks to stress campus administration to make that change. Efforts are underway to unite different organizations round this mission, notably the Muslim Scholar Affiliation and the UWM chapter of College students for Justice in Palestine.
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